What is calibration and why is it important to a good quality control system?
> List the key principles of the Six Sigma philosophy. How does it differ from TQM?
> What is Six Sigma? Briefly outline its history at Motorola and General Electric.
> A person who runs an auto repair shop related that he routinely washes cars or changes the oil for his best customers at no charge. What are the benefits of such a policy?
> Nashville Custom Guitars (NCG) is a small-scale manufacturing operation, producing fewer than 800 instruments a year. The company does not have a formal quality department nor has it consciously tried to apply the principles of TQM. Nevertheless, a tour
> Why is Lean Six Sigma especially useful in services? Cite some examples.
> How did Lean Six Sigma evolve? How does it differ from the original concept of Six Sigma?
> Describe the key tools used in lean production.
> Explain the steps of the Deming cycle.
> Why is brainstorming an important tool in the Improvement phase of DMAIC?
> What is root cause analysis? Describe some tools that are useful in identifying a root cause.
> What is a value stream map and how does it differ from an ordinary flowchart?
> Explain different types of check sheets and how they are used.
> What is an operational definition? Why is it important?
> State the typical elements that make up a project charter.
> Are you loyal to any particular businesses? Why or why not?
> What is a SIPOC diagram? How is it used in DMAIC?
> Explain the concept of Pareto analysis. How is a Pareto distribution created?
> Explain the structure and purpose of the A3 Report that Toyota created. How does it support the DMAIC process?
> Discuss factors that should be considered when selecting Six Sigma projects.
> Explain the four themes that different improvement methodologies share. How are they reflected in the Deming cycle, creative problem-solving process, and DMAIC?
> Provide some examples of low-tech and high-tech measuring instruments used in quality control.
> List and explain the four major categories of quality costs. Give examples of each.
> Why are cost of quality programs valuable to managers?
> Explain the difference in measuring nonconformance’s per unit and defects per million opportunities (dpmo)? What advantages does dpmo have as a quality measure?
> What is the difference between an attribute measurement and a variable measurement?
> One national home improvement store trained employees to “make a customer, not a sale.” For instance, if a customer tried to buy a small item such as a bolt that didn’t have a barcode or one that was unreadable, employees would let the customer have it f
> Explain the difference between a nonconformance and a nonconforming unit of work.
> What trade-offs are involved in selecting the sample size for a control chart?
> Explain the concept of rational subgroups.
> What is a dashboard and why is it valuable in quality control?
> What guidance does ISO standard 11462-1 provide for organizations wishing to use SPC?
> Explain the difference between a c-chart and a u-chart.
> Does an np-chart provide any different information than a p-chart? Why would an np-chart be used?
> Describe some situations in which a chart for individual measurements would be used.
> Why is the s-chart sometimes used in place of the R-chart?
> What does one look for in interpreting control charts? Explain what a control chart for a process in statistical control should look like, and the characteristics of out-of-control indicators.
> A criticism of the Net Promoter Score is that different percentages of promoters, passives, and detractors can result in the same scores. For example, suppose that one firm has 20 percent detractors, 0 percent passives, and 80 percent promoters, while an
> Briefly describe the methodology of constructing and using control charts.
> Explain how pre-control is applied. How does it differ from statistical process control?
> How does a process performance index differ from a process capability index?
> What does the term in statistical control mean?
> What does the acronym SMART signify for measurement? Why are these characteristics important?
> Explain how to interpret the ratio Cpk /Cp .
> Define the process capability indexes, Cp , Cpl, and Cpu, and explain how they may be used to establish or improve quality policies in operating areas or with suppliers.
> What are the three major types of process capability studies? Describe the methodology of conducting a process capability study.
> Explain the term process capability. How can process capability generally be improved?
> How is an R&R study performed? What is its purpose?
> Develop some survey questions that an Urgent Care facility might ask patients about their experience. Group your questions into categories of Physician/ Nurse, Personal Issues, and Overall Experience.
> Explain the difference between repeatability and reproducibility.
> What is the difference between accuracy and precision?
> Describe the science of metrology.
> Explain the importance of formula (8.5):
> Define measurement, and explain the difference between measures and indicators.
> Explain and give an example of nominal specifications and tolerances in both manufacturing and service.
> Outline the process of building the House of Quality. What departments and functions within the company should be involved in each step of the process?
> Explain the concept and the principal benefits of QFD.
> What is the purpose of detailed design?
> A customer survey for a pharmacy asks customers to rate the pharmacy according to the following: Friendly pharmacist Knowledgeable pharmacist Friendly pharmacy technician knowledgeable pharmacy technician Quick checkout They use a 1–5 Likert scale ra
> Explain concept development and innovation. Describe the importance of innovation and creativity in concept development.
> What is Design for Six Sigma (DFSS)? Explain the four basic elements of DFSS and the various tools and methodologies that comprise this body of knowledge.
> What is concurrent engineering? What benefits does it have?
> Describe different forms of product testing.
> Explain the purpose of design reviews and how they facilitate product development.
> Describe the basic approach to design for excellence (DFX).
> Discuss environmental responsibility issues relating to product design facing businesses today.
> Summarize the key design practices for high quality in manufacturing and assembly.
> How can product design affect manufacturability? Explain the concept and importance of design for manufacturability.
> What is fault tree analysis? How does it differ from DFMEA?
> One of our former students discovered a way to receive great service: Ask for a satisfaction survey at the beginning of a transaction. In one experience, the student observed an instant change in how she was treated. What does such an experience tell you
> Discuss the importance of and impediments to reducing the time for product development.
> What is design failure mode and effects analysis (DFMEA)? Provide a simple example illustrating the concept.
> What is robust design? Explain why it is important for both consumers and manufacturers.
> Explain how to compute the reliability of series, parallel, and series-parallel systems.
> What is a reliability function? Explain how to determine it.
> Explain the product life characteristics curve and its implications for reliability and quality control.
> What is the definition of failure rate? How is it measured?
> What is the difference between inherent reliability and achieved reliability?
> What is the difference between a functional failure and a reliability failure?
> Define reliability. Explain the definition thoroughly.
> An article in the Harvard Business Review (Matthew Dixon, Karen Freeman and Nicholas Taman, “Stop Trying to Delight Your Customers,” July-August 2010, pp. 116–122) suggests that delighting customers by exceeding service expectations does not build loyalt
> Explain the Taguchi loss function and how it is used in process and tolerance design.
> Describe the steps of the product design and development process.
> What is the difference between sampling error and systematic error? Why are these important to understand?
> Describe the common types of sampling schemes.
> List and explain the three basic elements of statistical methodology.
> How do discrete probability distributions differ from continuous probability distributions?
> List the most important types of probability distributions used in quality management
> Explain the multiplication rule of probability. How does independence of events affect the multiplication rule?
> State the four rules for calculating probabilities of events.
> Describe a factorial experiment. Provide some examples of factorial experiments that you might use to solve some type of quality-related problem.
> Choose some e-commerce site with which you are familiar. Analyze how “customer-focused” the organization appears to be and provide specific examples to justify your opinions
> What is the purpose of design of experiments?
> Explain the concepts of correlation and regression.
> Explain the difference between an experiment, an outcome, and a sample space.
> Explain the hypothesis that is tested in analysis of variance.
> Describe some applications of hypothesis testing that might be applied to the topics in Chapters 3, 4, and 5
> What is a confidence interval? What value do they have?
> What are some of the descriptive statistical tools available in Microsoft Excel, and how can they be used?
> State the meaning of the central limit theorem in your own words. How important is it to the development and use of statistical quality control techniques?
> Explain the difference between the standard deviation and the standard error of the mean. How are they related?
